Thank you for your interest in our annual survey of spawning horseshoe crabs. By participating in the educational aspects of this project you will help us collect data and to acquire biological information on horseshoe crabs in New York’s Marine District. This data will be used by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation to assess the status of horseshoe crabs in New York’s Marine District, and to assist with the regional management and conservation of this species through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

If you participate in this educational survey you will be helping to collect data on horseshoe crab spawning abundance, size, sex and tag returns around full and new moon evenings from May to July. Trained site coordinators will be present to educate and teach you about the survey, however, it is important that you take the time to follow the instructions below and contact your site coordinator before showing up to the survey. By doing so, you will be better prepared and help make the survey run efficiently and learn about the stewardship of horseshoe crabs.

To watch a short-documentary by WAKE Multimedia that highlighted our monitoring program and the surrounding issues for horseshoe crab management in New York State please Click Here

The Essentials

All participants MUST:

•First complete a Participant Waiver and Code of Conduct form, and submit to the site coordinator before the survey. If you are participating through another organization, please be sure to fill out their forms as well. The site coordinators can assist you with this if needed.